Little Old Me?

2 days ago, I drove to my house and my street was closed. There were several trucks and workmen around. This isn't too unusual as Footscray is mostly a building site at the moment - being a high growth inner city area (rated the highest growth area in 2012 apparently)

I parked a couple of streets away, walked to my house and realised all those workmen were there for.... me? Who? Little old me? 

They were all there to install a gas line to my new house. The house has never had gas previously so the road and footpath had to be cut up to get the pipes in.  They needed to coordinate several services to be there on the same day.

"I hope I don't have to pay for all this!" 

Annoyingly, there was a white car parked outside the house which held them up for several hours despite it being a 2 hour parking zone. To try and find the driver, they knocked on all the doors in the street, went down to the railway building site but no luck. We even tried shaking the car violently to set off any alarms- still no luck. Finally at 11am, the driver turns up all dazed and "wha?" and drives it away without a parking fine.

At one point, the workmen asked to come in to my house to check it out. They were fascinated about the ambitiousness of the project and asked me the usual FAQ.

Anyway, the gas line is now in and the plumbing "rough in" is done. It only took him a day. I am a bit annoyed that that other plumber tried to quote me $8000 for a day's work. I may look like Silly Little Old Me, but I have a family behind me cross checking my quotes, mate.

There are other things going on too numerous to go in to - eg. the house is ever so slightly leaning and I'm trying to work out if its noticeable. I'm still trying to organise a carpenter to fix the roof so I can eventually get electricity, plus trying to organise the floorboards etc etc 

 All for me!

 me

 Still for me

"STOP"  .... for me

 The workmen going in my house. You can see the yellow electricity cable coming in from next door which I'm cringingly hoping is still OK with the neighbour but she did bring everyone out some cold watermelon at some stage!  :)

 

The finished gas line on the right there! I need to organise a water meter for that thing on the left. Add it to the list.

 Picked up the ducting kit in Ringwood today. I opened my boot thinking it would all fit in there but...

The ducting took up the entire car- boot and cabin. I couldn't see anything out the back and felt dangerous to drive.

The view of the city from the park a few doors down.

Survey: put your finger over the centre verandah post and tell me - Can you tell if the house is leaning?? Does it look obvious? It is completely structurally sound. I can fix it but it requires me taking down the ceiling and a hold up to other works that are waiting.